76th Annual Hunger Games
by SarahKinsley
Summary: The Barden Bella's and the Treblemakers are forced to participate in the Hunger Games. This is a rewrite of a story I did a while back, I hope you like it. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

Beca Mitchell walked across the quad in the late afternoon sun. She had just auditioned for the Barden Bella's, and she thought it had gone pretty well.

She wasn't sure why she cared; it wasn't like she wanted to this. However, what she wanted was to go to L.A., and if this was what it took to get there, it could definitely have been worse. Besides, it had been worth auditioning just to see the blond chick's face when she heard her sing.

Once she stepped off the soft, sound-muffling grass and onto the sidewalk that led to her dorm, she heard someone behind her. Chloe, her shower stalker, had pulled her aside when she was leaving to (secretly) tell her she was in, and to warn her that she'd be kidnapped as a part of initiation.

_She doesn't waste any time, _Beca smiled to herself. She never looked back, but she did start walking faster. Why make it easy for them? From their footsteps, she deduced there were two of them, and she wondered vaguely how long it would take Chloe and her blond friend to chase down all the girls they were accepting.

And then she heard them talk. _Boys_, she realized. Maybe Chloe needed help with her mass kidnapping, so she enlisted the help of these guys? Or maybe she was just being paranoid and they weren't actually following her at all, she reasoned.

Then an arm snaked around her tiny waste and lifted her off her feet; a black hood pulled over her head. _They're being really rough_, she thought, starting to panic. How ironic would it be for her to get actually kidnapped right before a planned kidnapping? She almost gave a half-crazed laughed at that thought until she felt herself being pushed legs-first into a car.

The scream that had been until then caught in her throat escaped at that moment. She tried to kick but another pair of hands inside the car caught her ankles and pulled her in. Once the car was moving, the kidnappers bound her wrists and ankles with a thin, strong rope. Then one of them raised the hood to just above her nose while another covered the exposed part of her face with a foul-smelling rag until she passed out.

Beca woke up in a bright room. She had to squint for several second to make out her surroundings. She was sitting upright in a chair, ropes binding her arms and legs to it. For a moment she was confused; her head was pounding like she had a bad hangover, but she couldn't remember drinking. She looked at the floor trying to remember what happened, and then it hit her. Bella auditions. Walking in the quad. The kidnapping.

"It's about time." Said a girl with a thick Australian accent. Her head snapped up; In her momentary disorientation, she hadn't looked at the room she was in at all. Now that she did, she saw that there were several other people tied to chairs like hers, arranged in a large circle.

"You?" Beca started, trying to remember. "You were at the activities fair right? At the DJ booth? Did you audition for the Bella's too?"

"I was, and I did." She said in an almost bored voice. "I was the first to wake up, but I still don't know what's going on. It been hours..." Beca looked around the circle, and jumped when she saw Chloe to her right, slumped against the ropes that were keeping her in place. In the chair on Chloe's other side was the blond Bella that didn't like Beca.

"What?" She shaped when she caught Beca looking at her.

"Is this a part of your stupid initiation?" Beca demanded. "Because if it is, you can forget it; this is too much."

"If it was a part of the initiation, why would I be tied to a chair too!" Her voice got louder and higher in pitch with every word as she struggled violently with her ropes, almost tipping her chair over.

"She's been like that since she woke up." The Aussie said. "I'm Fat Amy by the way." She added.

"Fat Amy?" Beca raise an eyebrow. "You call yourself fat?"

"So twig bitches don't do it behind her back." The blond girl said, still struggling dramatically.

"Her name is Aubrey," Fat Amy told her when Aubrey failed to introduce herself. "And she's totally insane."

"I am not!" Aubrey shouted. "You guys are crazy! You're not even trying to escape!" Fat Amy apparently had nothing to say to this, so instead she turned her attention to the unconscious girl sitting between Aubrey and herself. This girl had blond curly hair, and a pretty face.

"I sat next to her while I was waiting to audition." Amy said. "I think her name is Jessica."

"So, did everyone here audition for the Bella's?" Beca asked Amy.

"Everyone except for the two that already were," She nodded at Aubrey and sleeping Chloe. The girl on Fat Amy's other side spoke then, and Beca jumped. She'd been paying so much attention to Fat Amy and Aubrey that she didn't notice the girl was awake.

"I'm Denise." She said. "And Amy's right, all the girls were trying out, but there were more at auditions than there are here. Do you think they just couldn't get us all, or did they target us specifically?" Beca could tell this was a topic that had been discussed more than once already.

"Maybe it was just random, and we just happened to be leaving the theater when they started snatching people." Suggested a black girl with pink in her hair, who was sitting on Beca's other side and introduced herself as Cynthia Rose.

"Or maybe they were targeting Bella's but they only wanted a certain number?" The bespectacled girl on Cynthia Rose's left said. She had short, light brown hair ,and an almost timid demeanor. "I'm Mary Elise." She added to Beca.

"There's twelve right? The same number of people allowed in the Bella's, can that be a coincidence?" Beca asked.

"I don't think so. But what else is there?" Fat Amy asked. "Unless it was those Treblemakers or something. They seemed to really not like us."

"I bet it was!" Aubrey exclaimed. "I'm gonna kill those idiots!"

"What do you think?" Beca addressed the only girl awake that hadn't spoken yet.

"She was the first to wake after me," Fat Amy informed her. "But we still don't know her name; I don't think she can talk." Beca had opened her mouth to reply when the girl between the silent girl and Mary Elise gave a sudden jerk. Though the girl was siting, Beca could tell that standing, the girl would have been very tall. Her long dark curls fell over her shoulders onto her low cut shirt. It took the girl a moment to get her bearings, and when she looked up and saw the circle of people staring at her, she laughed.

"So I'm in right?" She said to Aubrey, who gave another angry outburst.

"It's not an initiation!" Then they started the whole conversation over again, getting almost to where they'd been when the tall girl, whose name turned out to be Stacie, had woken up before someone else woke up and the cycle continued.

In the end, the only one still asleep was Chloe. The circle was now as follows: Beca, sleeping Chloe, Aubrey, Jessica, Fat Amy, Denise, Kori, Quiet Girl, Stacie, Mary Elise, and Cynthia Rose, in a counter-clockwise direction. Beca was surprised she could remember all their names so quickly, normally she was horrible with people's names.

Aubrey's chair finally fell over during one of her frequent explosions, slamming the floor with a thunderous crash. She fell sideways into Chloe, who was woken abruptly when she hit the floor with the force of Aubrey's fall.

Chloe was understandably more confused than the rest of them had been upon waking. She was trying to calm Aubrey down, who was more distraught than ever, and take in her new environment at the same time.

"What is this place?" She asked the room at large, trying to see it from the awkward angle at which she was lying, still bound to the chair. This was a topic that had been discussed at length by the other girls, but to no avail.

"We think it's some kind of warehouse or something." Beca said. Chloe tried to turn herself to face Beca, but failed. "There's no windows or anything just a bunch of boxes. I don't even see a door."

"That's because it's behind you." As soon as the words were out of Amy's mouth, Beca heard the door in question open noisily, and slam shut again. A hush fell over the other girls immediately, all of them save the two on the ground were looking over her left shoulder at something she couldn't yet see.

Then he passed her, walking towards the fallen chairs. The man bent down quickly, as if in a hurry, and roughly pulled Chloe's back into an upright position. Once Aubrey was back in her place in the circle as well, he returned to it's center and turned slowly on the spot. He was a very odd looking man, Beca thought. He had shoulder length, bright neon yellow hair tied back into a ponytail high on is head. When he faced Beca, she was startled to see his lips and eyelids matched his hair.

He might not have been a man at all, except the dark blue suit he wore fit an obviously masculine frame. However, this was not helped by the tiny lights twinkling decorating the suit jacket. He made one, very slow, complete spin so as to look at them all individually. His freakishly bright eyes lingered momentarily on Beca's before he spoke.

"Hello ladies, and welcome to the 76th annual Hunger Games! I am your host, Caesar Flickerman!" Beca exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Stacie, but kept quiet. This was obviously some sort of hoax, this guy was probably in the rival a cappella group, and they were trying to freak them out. But he looked awfully old to be in college, Beca thought negatively. Before she could give it too much serious thought, the man was talking again.

"We are having a musical version this year!" He exclaimed, positively bouncing with glee. "The Barden Bella's and the Treblemakers! Doesn't that sound like fun?" He looked around at them expectantly, as if wanting them to be as excited as him.

_This guy is fucking nuts! _ Beca thought. _The Hunger Games were just books, movies, not real life. What was he playing at?_

"You will be split into pairs; one Bella, one Treble. In two weeks time, you will be placed in the arena, where you will remain until only one pair is left." He was talking as if he were serious but still excited, and it was making Beca extremely uneasy. "If your partner dies, your chances are certainly hurt, but you are not out of the running. If you and your partner both live, you both win. Other than that, there are no rules. Be as vicious as you can," He paused for a moment before adding, "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Fat Amy spoke up. "Is this some kind of sick joke, or are you really psycho enough to think you can make us kill each other?" He raised his eyebrows, but didn't immediately answer. Instead, he gave her a look as though he almost pitied her.

"You will play the game." His tone suddenly lost it's cheer.

"What if we don't?" Beca asked. "What if we go into your arena and just sit there until we all starve to death?" For answer, he pulled an iPhone out of his inside pocket and walked up to her. He unlocked it and swiped his finger across it until he found what he was looking for. When he turned it around to face her, she gasped audibly.

It was a picture of her mother. Swipe; her little brother. Swipe; her father and step-mother Sheila. Swipe, her . When she looked back up at his face he smirked; he knew he had her. He went around the circle, and one by one he showed each of the Bella's who would die if they didn't play.

"As long as you do your genuine best to win, the people I've just shown you will be perfectly safe. If you refuse, they will all die, but not before they watch you die in the arena." He gave them all a sad little smile. "I was so hoping I wouldn't have to resort to blackmail in the first five minutes, but there you have it. You will play, will you not?" A general mumble of frightened, angry, begrudging agreement stole around the circle.

"There's good girls." He gave a sick smile and made his way to the door. Just before opening it he called back to them: "May the odds be ever in your favor."


	2. Chapter 2

Beca sat alone on the floor of a tiny room, about the size of your average closet. She, along with all the others, had been separated immediately after Crazy Flickerman had left. The door was locked on the outside, but at least in here she wasn't tied to anything.

Suddenly, the door opened and a person was thrust inside. He rebounded against the wall opposite and ran back at the door, but slammed against it as it shut.

"No!" He yelled, pounding his fist on the door angrily.

"Jesse?!" Beca exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your partner." He finally said, after abandoning his attempt to break down the door.

"Since when are you a Treble?" Beca asked. "I didn't see you at auditions."

"Well you were extremely late," He almost smiled in spite of the situation. "I saw you though. The cup thing was cool." Beca just rolled her eyes.

"How are we going to get out of here." She stood up and tried to pace, but the room was too small. "What are we going to do, what's the plan?" She said all this very fast, and Jesse looked momentarily confused at the sudden change.

"I don't know." He lowered his head. "Maybe this is all some sick joke. But . . .what if they really make us play?" He asked. Beca saw the fear in his eyes for the first time. "They showed me a pictures, my parents, my little sister. If they really make us do this, I won't let them hurt my family Beca." A touch of anger now in his words. They stared at each other for a long moment without speaking; contemplating what was to come, and then Jesse turned away

"Why though?" Beca asked, breaking the silence. "Why are they doing this; what do they get out of it?" She asked, frustrated.

"They didn't tell you?" He asked, turning back to face her. He waited for an answer, but when he didn't get one, he elaborated. "There will be people watching the whole time. Betting on the winners, how long the game will last, who will die first. They're doing it for entertainment."

"What?!" She said, looking disgusted. "How-" Before she could finish, the door burst open and two very large men came in. The room was now so full, Beca and Jesse were squished against the wall and had no means of escape.

"Time to go." One of the men said, and without any further explanation they were dragged from the room.

The closet they'd been kept in had been at the end of a long hallway. From there, they walked into a new room that was divided in the middle by a curtain. Beca and Jesse were steered towards opposite sides by their respective escorts. Despite the immediate objections they raised, they were forcibly separated and made to sit on the little tables with the rolls of paper, like at a doctor's office.

There was a woman on Beca's side of the curtain, and a very odd woman at that. In fact, if it were not for the revealing nature of the shirt she wore, Beca would not have known her gender at all. Her hair was cut very short, and died a light shade of green. She had a a swirling pattern tattooed on her face, chest, and the visible part of her arms, that Beca suspected probably covered the majority of her body, and that matched her hair exactly.

She introduced herself as Isadora, and said she would be Beca's stylist for the games. She told Beca to strip completely so she could she what she had to work with and Beca could here Jesse, who had clearly been told to do the same, arguing on the other side of the curtain. Isadora told her that if she did not, Tony (her escort), would be happy to help. She raised no more objections.

Three hours later after she had been scrubbed, waxed, trimmed, and buffed of any imperfections, Beca was finally finished. She was given a navy blue gym suit with white trimming, a white undershirt, and matching blue and white sneakers. Once she finished dressing, she was lead out by Tony.

She only had to wait a moment in the hall before Jesse and his escort, Pete, came out. Jesse was dressed in the same outfit, and looking a little defeated. Tony lead the way with Beca and Jesse walking side by side, and Pete bringing up the rear.

They headed further down the long hall to a large door with a bronze plaque reading: CLOSET. Tony opened the door to reveal, not a closet, but an old-fashioned elevator. He lifted the grill and waited for the others to go in before stepping in himself and closing the closet door. He slid the grill down and shut the inner door. There were five buttons on the secret elevator, and Pete chose the bottommost one, which was labeled S4.

The S4 landing was very similar to the one above. They stepped off single file and followed Tony down the passage to a plain view elevator. After taking this non-secret, modern elevator a further three floors down, once again followed Tony onto the landing.

This floor however, was very different from those above. The upper floors had had endless halls with white tile, white painted walls, and too many white doors. Down here everything looked almost futuristic compared to the former. They were in a room full of monitors showing empty hallways, offices, rooms filed with odd things, and rooms filed with nothing at all. The two central monitors showed a large space that looked something like a showroom from two different angles. There were people everywhere; watching the screens, working on computers, drinking coffee, and only discussing one topic: The Games.

Pete and Tony quickly steered them towards a door to the right, which Pete had to open with a fingerprint. The narrow hallway beyond looked short, but curved off to the left. They turned at the last door before the curve, which was marked Team 1. Tony explained that this was to be their living quarters for the duration of the training period.

Once inside the first door, they found themselves in a little square room with three more doors. Pete and Tony went back out the one they came in, which Beca was dismayed to see, needed a fingerprint to get through. The door to the left had a name plate on it reading: MITCHELL, and the opposite one: SWANSON. The center unmarked door turned out to be a small dining room. They had awkward sort of goodnight moment before going into their respective rooms.

Beca's room was huge. She had half expecting another closet, or maybe a cell, but this was like nothing she'd ever seen. The extravagant furnishings were like something out of one of those movies she hated. With a four-poster canopy bed, a long cushioned window seat (though there was only a mirror, not a window), an ornate antique dresser and bedside tables, and an old fashioned tiffany ceiling fixture.

Beca opened the little door to the left of the bed and saw that she had been correct in assuming it was a bathroom. The bathroom was as large as the whole of her bedroom at home, and it looked every bit as old fashioned as the bedroom. There was a claw foot bathtub set out from the wall, and the toilet had a water closet. There was even a fireplace near the tub. She walked back out of the bathroom, and through the bedroom to the little annex room and almost ran into Jesse.

"What is this place?" He asked. "It looks like it's been here a while. How long have they been doing this?"

"They can't have done for too long, the books have only been out a few years…" She trailed off, a look of panic creeping onto her face. "Jess, what if they aren't copying the books. What if the books were about them?"


	3. Chapter 3

Before Beca and Jesse could discuss this frightening concept further, the door to the hall opened and two people came in, crowding the little space. The man was tall, and his features suggested that he had once been quite handsome, but something, excessive drinking maybe, had taken most of it. His hair was greying, though he could't have been more than thirty, and his green eyes empty looking.

The woman looked a little crazy; strangely beautiful, but crazy. She had jet black hair, and her light blue eyes were almost manic. She looked to be around the same age, maybe a little younger than the man, but she was at least a foot shorter, around Beca's own height. She had tiny golden glowing star tattoos starting just above her left eyebrow and curving around to the outer corner of the eye. Beca thought the way the ink glowed like that might have been part of what made her a little scary looking. Well, it was either that or the way her eyes had gone from light blue to dark green and back in a gradiating pattern.

They looked a little startled to see the two of them just standing there in this confined space, but quickly got over it.

"Good, I'm glad you're together!" The woman said, her voice much more energetic than Beca had been expecting. "Let's go in here shall we?" She lead the way into the little dining room where the table was already set and the silent man shut the door behind them. Once everyone was seated, Beca beside Jesse and opposite the other two, the woman spoke again.

"Well first things first I suppose," She said in a businesslike voice. "My name is Jensina (Yen-see-na), but you can call me Jensi, and I will be you're escort though out the Games. And this," She put a faint hand on the man's arm to indicate him, which made him jump in alarm. "Is Jake." She said a little slower, as if his reaction had scared her as well.

But Beca barely noticed. She was staring at Jake with sudden recognition. He had been all over the news when she was a freshman in high school; the son of a well known politician who had disappeared. Everyone thought he had run away, despite his family's insistence that he would never, and that he'd been kidnapped. Jensi's next statement confirmed one of Beca's suspicions.

"Jake won the games for Team One four years ago. He will be you're mentor for the duration of the training period." This woman was entirely to chipper for Beca's taste, but one thing was made clear to her that she wasn't sure Jesse had realized yet. Jake had won their games. And he's still their prisoner.

She had seen the Hunger Games movie, but she hadn't read much into it. Now that she thought about it, the characters had had a victor/mentor too, and she saw another problem. If Jake was the most recent person to win for their team, he was the mentor. So, if she and Jesse won, what would happen to him? Surely they wouldn't let him go after all he'd seen (and potentially done) here. If they let the survivors leave, they would have been found out long before the 76th year of the Games. But someone wrote the book right?

Beca's head was so full of questions she barely heard Jensi talking. It wasn't until Jesse nudged her out of her thoughts that she realized she'd been asked something.

"I'm sorry, what?" She said, giving her head a tiny shake to clear it.

"I was asking whether or not your living quarters were to your liking?"

"The only thing 'to my liking' is going home." She said in an irritated voice.

"Well I'm sorry dear, but that's quite out of the question." Beca opened her mouth to argue the point, but she was interrupted by the door opening behind her. Two boys entered wearing identical, all white serving outfits, and pushing large silver carts into the room. The taller of the two, who was pushing the first cart, stopped beside the table and unloaded two enormous covered trays.

The other boy's cart was full of an assortment of drinks. He placed a large pitcher of water in the center of the table along with four small glasses, and a bowl of ice with tongs. He set a pre made drink in front of Jensi that was brightly colored and had a little paper umbrella as if this were a standing order, but then waited silently for the others to chose a drink. Jake, speaking for the first time, got a whiskey, and looked pointedly at Beca and Jesse to order something too.

"Um, do you have coke?" Jesse asked uncertainly. The boy nodded and extracted a can from the lower shelf, opened it, and poured it into another little glass before setting it in front of Jesse. Beca ordered the same and the two boys left.

"Is he not allowed to talk or something?" Jesse directed his question to Jake.

"He can't. He's an Avox." Jensi answered in a matter-of-fact tone, as if this were common knowledge.

"A what?" Jesse asked, looking perplexed.

"An Avox." Jake said, his voice a bit rough from anger, or maybe just lack of use. "They are people who tried to escape or broke the rules in some way-"

"They are traitor's to the Capital." Jensi interrupted. "They don't speak because they have no tongues." Jesse and Beca exchanged a look; apparently they had more to fear ben than losing their families. Being forced to silently serve these sick people forever would be a fate worse than death in Beca's opinion.

Jake had taken the lids off of the food trays to reveal the most amazing looking food Beca had ever seen. The first tray held a very large pot of some kind of soup, a basket of rolls, a line of club crackers, and sliced breads. The other contained a heap of pork-chops, mashed potatoes, an assortment of steamed vegetables, white rice, and a chocolate pudding that was in a chilled bowl.

"Normally there would be a fancy first dinner, with courses and the whole deal, but we don't usually get all of the tributes on the same night, so the wait staff is a bit spread out." She said apologetically. Like they might be more upset about having a slightly less fancy dinner than about being kidnapped and forced to fight to the death. These people were so backwards. Beca and Jesse simply chose not to respond, so Jensi moved on.

"Now that you have seen first hand what happens to those who don't follow the rules, I hope we won't have any nonsense about escaping. While you're here, you'll have these quarters to yourselves. No one will come in here except for Jake and myself, and the Avox. You are free to go between these rooms, there will always be food in here, or you can have an Avox bring anything you want. Your rooms have been stocked with clothes prior to your arrival, you may wear whatever you want to the shoot; your stylist will dress you there anyway. Everyone on the same page?" She said all this very fast, and now looked from Beca to Jess and back waiting for a response.

"We won't try to escape." Beca said, Jesse nodding in agreement. As she said it, the last of her hope seemed to dissipate. The odds of a successful escape were not in their favor, and there was far too much at stake in the event of a fail.

"Good. The guards you had earlier will not be used again until you're transported to the arena. We are trusting you to follow the rules, because there are no second chances." She tilted her head forward slightly and raised an eyebrow as if for emphasis. Through all this Jake said nothing, but continued to drink whiskey in silence.

After the seemingly endless dinner was over and Jensi and Jake had gone, Beca and Jesse returned to the table to discuss their predicament. Beca confided the fears she'd had earlier, and Jesse did the same. Beca was right, however, in thinking Jesse hadn't picked up on the mentor thing. Jesse too had recognized Jake, but he had not understood until Beca pointed it out, that even if they won they were not ever leaving. Beca thought it was better to live as a mentor than to be an Avox, but Jesse thought it would be better to die in the arena and have it done with.

"But if we die, there's no chance we can ever be free. If we play their game, maybe we can win and be a mentor for as long as it takes to find a way to escape."

"Jake won the games _four_ years ago. He still hasn't found a way out. I'd rather die than spend the rest of my life in this place living on ever thinning false hope."

"How can you just give up so easily?" She demanded. "They took twenty-four students from the same campus in one night. People will notice. They've been doing this so long, they're getting too cocky and making risky mistakes like that. Who's to say they won't find us without us escaping?"

"I don't know Beca…" He sounded exhausted, and Beca suddenly realized that she was too.

"I guess we should go to bed, huh?" She asked. "We can argue about this later. At least we know we're safe until the Games start."

"True. Night Bec." He said, getting up.

"Night." They made their way to their own rooms for the night, hoping a photo shoot was the worst tomorrow held for them.

Beca found a drawer full of night clothes in one of the bedside tables, dressed and climbed into the giant bed. The sheets were soft and warm, and she managed to relax for the first time since she woke up in that chair. It didn't take as long as she would have thought for sleep to come.


	4. Chapter 4

When Beca woke up the next morning, it was still dark. She tried to remember the dream she'd been having just before she woke up, but it had been so strange she wasn't sure that she wanted to. Jesse, the guy from the radio station had been there, and the weird girl from the showers. And there had been other people too, people she didn't know, odd looking people.

Her bed was so warm and soft. She was just considering skipping her first class, and was on the brink of checking the time when someone knocked on the door.

"Photo shoot in ten! I hope you're up and getting ready!" Came an excited voice. Then it hit her. It wasn't dark, there were just no windows. Kidnapped. Psycho people. Hunger Games. Photo shoot. It wasn't a dream.

She supposed she had known that from the moment she woke up, there was just some part of her brain that had hoped to the point of temporary delusion. She forced herself to get out of bed, to keep going, for the sake of those who might be hurt if she didn't. She put on a simple blue shirt and pants that she found in one of the dresser drawers and tried to strengthen her resolve before leaving the room. She couldn't let the others see the tears in her eyes.

When she did finally leave her room, it was to find Jesse standing in the little foyer waiting. He looked like he'd barely slept at all, and Beca wondered silently who he might be dying for. Jesse tried the door, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn't. Beca supposed they were beyond that now.

They walked down the hall in silence, side by side. When they caught up with Jensi they had to quicken their pace considerably to console her frequent urges that they were going to be 'dangerously late!' These outbursts were usually followed by a dirty look in Beca's direction.

They turned the corner and found themselves in another Remake Room like the one where they first met their respective stylists. Beca was scrubbed down again, until her skin was pink and tender. She was dressed in a set of navy blue workout clothes, this time with white and silver accents. The make up was very light, so as to keep her recognizable in the first round of photos, which would be shown throughout the Games.

Isadora and Demetria, Jesse's stylist, wheeled out a rack of complimentary outfits in their assigned color; navy blue. The curtain was rolled back so that they could all go over the contents of the rack together. Isadora explained that each pair of contestants would have a portfolio, to be delivered to potential sponsors and to be released publicly in the event of their deaths.

Once Isadora unzipped the first garment bag, Beca immediately resolved to win just to make sure no one ever saw her in that. It was a lacy little blue dress that would presumably come to just above the knee, and make her look as girlish as possible. It came with four inch stilettos, little accessories, and it's own hair and make-up requirements. Gross.

Jesse had a blue suit, with a matching tie, a silver vest and white button-up shirt. Both his shirt and vest matched accents in her dress like some stupid prom night cliche. It made Beca want to throw up.

She and Jesse posed separately as well as together in their work-out clothes before she had to endure the frills. It took nearly half an hour to make her face up in-between the two shots, and when they were done she didn't even recognize herself. At least another half hour was spent on the elaborate up-do they gave her; Jesse wore make up too, but only the sort that enhances your face and makes it look like you have none on. He was ready in about three minutes.

There were six more horrible outfits, and several hours of changed hair and make-up before they were finally finished. Then, Beca was instructed to put on the first dress again. She opened her mouth to refuse to restart this process, but Isadora had explained that they weren't starting over; they were to have recorded interviews with the host that night.

The interview would be to get to know their fellow players and also to get sponsors to like them, something they were assured they needed. Apparently there was going to be a splendid party after, with food from all over the world and dancers and all sorts of amazing things.

Beca would rather have tried all the clothes on three more times than do any of that. It wasn't that she didn't like parties or fun. But she sure as hell didn't want to get to know these people and them see them die, possibly even from her own hand. It had been hard enough before to think of killing anyone, but to be forced to spend time with them, get to know them as people? That was just cruel. No matter how you look at it.

They were having a big fancy party, for what? So they could mingle with these 'sponsors' and other people responsible for these Games, so they could place more accurate bets? These people were beyond sick.

She tried to swallow her anger as her original make-up was applied for the second time. Again Jesse was ready long before her, but when she was finally finished he was waiting in the hall.

"We're Team 1, we're up first." Jesse informed her. Beca had never experienced stage fright. She wasn't afraid of anything, except maybe rejection. Jesse was another story. He was extremely nervous. Shaking like a leaf. It was strange to see him like this.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"No! They haven't told us anything about this interview except that its really personal. What if I say the wrong thing, or don't say the right thing and they hurt my family? What am I going to do, I can't-" He was talking very fast and looking increasingly panicked.

"Jesse." She put up a hand to stop him. "Calm down. As long as we play along, our families will be fine. You have to believe that. They just want a good show. If you go out there sweating buckets and rambling, they're not gonna like that, you gotta pull it together. Just answer the questions they ask, and don't think too much."

She hoped her little pep talk had helped, but before he could say anything Jensi was pulling her towards the stage door. She just barely heard the host say something about 'Ladies first!" before she found herself on the weirdest stage she'd ever seen. She walked in a dreamlike state and sat in the only empty chair beside Caesar Flickerman, looking as crazy as ever.

The stage itself was a round platform that began to very slowly revolve as soon as she sat down. All around them there were blinking camera's in the shadows and tall mirrors. The mirror's she assumed were two-way so that those who could afford to do so could watch without being seen and identified by anyone else; the platform revolving so they could all get a good look.

The interview would be exactly one minute and thirty seconds. One minute and thirty seconds to convince enough people to like her to keep her alive. Before she had time to analyze the strategy her mentor had given her, Caesar was talking.

"Well now Beca Mitchell, tell us how you got involved in a cappella." He said, his expression light, conversational.

"A girl walked into my shower and told me to audition." She answered bluntly.

"Walked into..." He said slowly, tilting his head forward slightly.

"My shower yeah." Beca tried to suppress the smile at his incredulous expression.

"Wow. That was…bold of her," He laughed, and Beca could hear other people laughing too but she couldn't see them. "You must be quite the shower singer!"

"My shower head is my biggest fan, yes." Beca said, laughing a little. More out of nerves than anything else.

"This was in your dorm I assume?" He said after allowing a pause for the hidden audience to give a small laugh.

"Yes."

"So you'd never done a cappella before college?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No." She was being too serious. Only giving yes or no answers, not doing anything to capture interest. "I mean, I love music, I just prefer to make it on a computer instead of the old fashioned way." She smiled.

"On the computer? What do you mean?" Caesar asked, as if this was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. She suddenly wondered why he did this. He was clearly as much a pawn as she, but he was on the other side. Wasn't he? How had he come to be involved in these 'Games?' Was he perhaps a past Victor himself?

She was so lost in her own musings that she almost didn't answer the question.

"Beca?" He asked.

"Sorry Caesar, your question made me feel a little nostalgic for a second." She lied. "I am an aspiring DJ. I take pieces of different songs and mix them together, or digitally alter them to make new ones."

"Oh, well that's interesting!" He said a little too sincerely. "How did you get into that?" None of your business, she thought, and was on the brink of saying so when she remembered she was supposed to be relating to these people, making them like her.

"Music was something my dad shared with me. He's a writer, and so he would write the songs and I'd sing them. Sometimes we'd sing them together. After he left me and my mom, I started learning to make my own music, because it reminded me of our time together."

"That's beautiful." He said, wiping at a nonexistent tear. "What would you say to your father if he were here now?" Beca could feel the unblinking stares of the people she couldn't see.

"I'd tell him I'm sorry." She said, honestly. "Sorry that I shut him out. That I didn't give Sheila a chance. I blamed him for leaving, but I was wrong. I was too young to understand the bigger picture," She paused, not wanting to appear sincere to the sponsors, but not too weak. "And I'm going to try as hard as I can to win so I can go back and fix things with him, if it's not too late." She added with an honest determination she hadn't realized she'd had.

The buzzer went off announcing that her time was up, and the stage stilled.

"That's amazing," He smiled warmly at her as they stood up, clasping her hand. "And I wish you all the luck in the world." She turned around to leave and found herself face to face with Jensi.

"Good job," She said brusquely, putting a hand on Beca's arm to lead her off the stage. She passed Jesse on his way up, looking as nervous as she'd felt before her turn.


End file.
